To Prevent Mass Shootings, Believe the Women

Ex-girlfriend wasn’t taken seriously when she warned about accused bank shooter.

Many of the details from the massacre at the SunTrust bank branch in Florida are tragically familiar. Among them, the accused shooter’s ex-girlfriend was desperately trying to alert people that the man now in custody was potentially dangerous.

“For some reason [he] always hated people and wanted everybody to die,” she told an Indiana-based TV station. “Every single person I’ve told has not taken it seriously and it’s very unfortunate that it had to come to this.”

In the thirty years I’ve spent providing legal counsel to families with loved ones afflicted by mental illness I’ve noticed it is almost always a woman who calls our office when grave concerns arise concerning a family member. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why this is, but with more caretaking responsibilities (even in 2019!) it’s not completely surprising that women are paying closer attention to personality changes, worrisome symptoms and general warning signs that could indicate a loved one is on the brink of a mental health crisis.

It’s also not surprising that this particular woman – the accused shooter’s ex-girlfriend – wasn’t taken seriously when she tried to alert others to the danger this man posed.

To be a woman in our society is to regularly experience what it’s like to have your expertise, judgement and instincts all disregarded. Just one example of this phenomenon is the extensive evidence that shows women have long received less medical treatment for pain and are far more likely to be misdiagnosed by physicians who don’t pay adequate attention to women’s symptoms, maladies and complaints.

Another example is the #MeToo movement: the reckoning spurred by mostly female victims of sexual harassment and assault who have long gone ignored and/or unbelieved. Hence the mantra of the movement: “Believe the Women.”

Preventing mass shootings requires much of our society: early intervention and proactive measures concerning those with mental illness in both schools and workplaces; a better understanding of legal options available to authoritative figures when red flags surface; more funding for mental health programs, especially community-based housing options; and an easing of state and federal privacy laws that keep families from participating in treatment and discharge plans and processes.

Many of these steps are difficult to achieve. What’s not difficult is simply believing the women who are brave enough to step forward and urge warnings when they suspect a loved one, colleague, student, etc. might pose a danger to himself or others.

Believing women would urge more women to speak out, and women today seem to be those most able to recognize mental health problems and most willing to act.

Women are the keepers of incredible knowledge and wisdom in our society. They work, run households, raise children, volunteer time, set budgets, allocate spending, pay bills – sometimes all at once. They’re champion multitaskers because they have to be. They perform the tasks that would otherwise go undone. They sift through the clutter. They notice the details. They pick their battles. And when there’s a threat facing their families, they fight harder than anyone.

Why would anyone disregard a woman with even the slightest inkling that someone she knew needed help? Who would know better than her?

Just because one woman had some inclinations of an impending doom that turned our to be right does NOT in anyway justify nor does it rationalize a generalized statement about believing women is crucial in preventing mass shootings.
First and foremost, despite the explanation given, the correlation between believing women and mass shooting prevention, itself is somewhat peculiar to say the least, let alone just believing women.

Yes, most women are more intuitive than men, but in today's world whereby women often are foolishly compelled to embrace masculine values and to discard feminine qualities including discouraging full time motherhood in order for women to be successful at work, thus women's intuitive skills would not be significantly more enhanced than men.

In addition, the anxious nature of women coupled with women's reduced ability to manage emotional stress and prolong mental fatigue in women from experiencing excessive emotional empathy instead of possessing compassionate inclinations, can easily cause women to over-react emotionally, exaggerate or be overly cautious in many situations

Moreover, believing someone has got nothing to do with their sex rather it has more to do with the relevant context.
In fact, women are known for frequently lying especially to deceptively gain an upper hand in many unfavorable situations such as custody cases, they also manipulate people to get something unfairly, often even manipulating the justice system like making false rape and domestic abuse allegations against men, including women's tendency to simply ruin another person's life often through malicious rumor-mongering or character assassination, usually motivated either by vindictiveness or jealousy. These immoral habits in women often start as early as adolescence.

Why women often lie?

One main reason is to compensate many of the intrinsic limitations women have, particularly in relation to crucial physical and mental abilities in comparison to men, that often restrict women from effectively contesting or competing fairly.
It is also not uncommon for many women to become pathological liars, while being completely oblivious of the gravity of developing such undesirable habitual behaviours.

Other reasons include neurosis, a common feminine personality trait that causes paranoia, unfounded suspicious, constant anxiety especially in highly aroused situations that concurrently inhibits logical thinking, women also commonly lie as a defensive mechanism, to prevent shame or to avoid reprimand, as most women are emotionally sensitive and often fear society's negative perceptions of them.

Therefore, just urging people to believe women without putting appropriate examination emphasis in the involved context combined with toxic gynocentric culture commonly seen nowadays such as supporting female over-sensitivity, victimhood mentality and misandry behaviour can cause more harm than good. Women are already conferred more social leeway along with less harsh punishment than men and often regarded as "objects of care" by the society due to women's increase vulnerability.
Now, urging people to believe women will only further worsens an unequal social system widening the gender chasm, just exacerbating the toxic gender/identity politics which is already quite prevalent in many modern societies today.

It is utterly inaccurate and rather prejudiced to claim women have long received less medical treatment for pain and are far more likely to be misdiagnosed because:

1. Women are more likely than men to suffer from complex autoimmune and chronic pain syndromes like migraine, carpal tunnel syndrome, IBS, multiple sclerosis, rhematoid including having increased risk of stress fractures and joint injury.

2. Women have a lesser pain tolerance than men as women, as they have more pain receptors and pain symptoms usually have a more subjective nature in women.

3. Many recent gender specific studies show women have increased risk of developing addiction to pain killer drugs even at smaller doses or when used for shorter periods compared to men. The prevalence of substance abuse is notably increasing in women, they also suffer more addiction related complications and more likely to relapse compared to men.

4. In addition, some women can be more sensitive to the effects of certain pain killer drugs due to fluctuations of sex hormone levels and women who use pain medication experience different changes in their brains than men do, which may have a complex emotional association including having more severe bad physical side effects from prolong use in women.

5. Women are more likely to experience anxiety or depression when using certain pain killer drugs and also have a higher mortality risk from overdose from some of these prescription drugs compared to men.

Hence, all these elements of the female health makes diagnosis and management process particularly challenging in women mainly from notable limiting factors combined with the very complex nature of certain disease processes involving involving pain related conditions in women.
So, it is not just about doctors providing less medical treatment for pain in women compared to men based upon people's common social perception of women, instead, there are rational medical reasons and explanation for the gender difference observed in pain management.

... without making this, too, a gender issue, when said women and men report that they belief some acquaintance is about to go apeshit. Otherwise a few more people will be filled with lead shot and their carcasses will not care a rat's behind about the gender of the person who tried to warn the right folks.